» Fielder’s 8th Inning homer off of Gordon Sinks Phillies

Fielder’s 8th Inning homer off of Gordon Sinks Phillies

Young 3rd year lefthanded hitting 1st baseman Prince Fielder, who leads the NL with 32 homeruns, took an 8th inning errant pitch by Phillies’ reliever Tom Gordon downtown for a two run homer as the Milwaukee Brewers erased a 5-1 Phillies lead and negated another fine performance by young lefthander Cole Hamels as the Phils fell again in another heartbreaker in Milwaukee by a 6-5 score.

Despite the loss, the Phillies remained 5 games behind the NL East 1st place Mets who lost to the Chicago Cubs by a 6-2 score. But they dropped again to 3rd place, 1/2 game behind the Atlanta Braves who defeated the Colorado Rockies by a 6-4 score.

Meanwhile, on the left coast, San Francisco Giants’ slugger Barry Bonds finally tied Hank Aaron’s all-time homer record with his 755th career round-tripper, an opposite field shot to leftfield to leadoff the 2nd inning. Despite Bonds’ record-tying shot, the Giants lost in 12 innings to the San Diego Padres by a 3-2 score. Bonds drew walks in his other 3 plate appearances and scored in the 4th inning on catcher Bengie Molina’s ground out as the Giants took a short-lived 2-1 lead.

The Brewers hit the scoreboard first as hot-hitting 3rd baseman Ryan Braun clubbed a two-out solo homer off of Hamels, his 19th homer in 63 games for Milwaukee since coming to the big club. Braun, who had two hits on Friday as well as two more in Saturday’s game, has 52 RBIs and is hitting a .345 over the 63 game span.

1st baseman Ryan Howard and leftfielder Pat Burrell provided offense in the 3rd inning, with a walk to centerfielder Aaron Rowand sandwiched in between, as the Phillies jumped to a 3-1 lead. Howard led off with a solo shot, his 30th homer of the season, to centerfield. Then, after Brewers’ starter Dave Bush walked Rowand, Burrell, who has been hitting at a torrid pace of late, clubbed a 2 run blast to give the Phils the lead.

In the 4th inning, 3rd baseman Gregg Dobbs poked a 2 out solo shot to rightfield to extend the Phillies’ lead to 4-1. The Phils had a chance for more in the 4th when catcher Carlos Ruiz followed Dobbs with a double to leftfield. But pitcher Hamels struck out to end the threat.

The Phils loaded the bases with two outs in the 5th on 2 singles and a walk. But Burrell grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

In the meantime, Hamels went clean with the Brewers in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th innings and faced 3 hitters in the 4th inning, getting Prince Fielder to ground into an inning ending first-to-shortstop-to-first doubleplay.

The Phils built their lead to 5-1 as Dobbs and Ruiz hit back-to-back doubles to open the 6th inning with Dobbs scoring on Ruiz’s double to left centerfield.

Bush was replaced in the 6th inning after the back-to-back doubles as the Brewers bullpen took over to totally shut down the Phils over the last 4 innings, only allowing them two base-runners in the 8th inning. Bush threw 90 pitches giving up 5 runs on 8 hits while walking 3, striking out 4 and serving up 3 Philly homers.

The Brewers closed the Phillies’ lead to 5-4 in the 6th inning off of Hamels as shortstop J.J. Hardy stroked a one out, 2 run double to center and Fielder drove in Hardy with a two out single to rightfield.

Hamels went clean on the Brewers in the 7th inning and was pulled in the 8th inning for pinch-hitter Abraham Nunez as the Phils threatened
with one out as Dobbs got aboard on shortstop Hardy’s fielding error and took 2nd base on the play. Ruiz followed with a walk. But Nunez grounded into an inning-ending shortstop-to-second-to-first doubleplay. Hamels threw 89 pitches while giving up 4 runs on 7 hits while striking out 5, walking none and giving up Braun’s 1st inning solo shot.

Enter Tom Gordon to nail down the win. It was not to be. The AP report for Yahoo sports describes the inning;

With one out, J.J. Hardy singled. Ryan Braun popped out, bringing up Fielder, who hit a 1-2 pitch by Tom Gordon (1-2) deep into the right-field seats, sending the sellout crowd of 42,126 into a frenzy.

“I was trying to go up and in and left it down,” Gordon said of the pitch to Fielder. “I missed, and he made me pay.”

Said Fielder: “I knew he was going to be aggressive, so I was just trying to stay aggressive also. That was awesome. Earlier in the year, that’s how we were playing. We still stayed in it no matter who was out there.”

One has to wonder aloud whether Gordon has had it. He has not looked good since coming off of the DL. One must wonder at Charlie Manuel’s choice with strong-armed and much younger and more imposing Brett Myers, with his wider selection of pitches, available for the 8th inning and for a possible two inning save. Myers had pitched in the two previous games.

The Phils put a scare into Milwaukee fans in the 9th inning against closer Francisco Cordero who recorded hi 34th save.

The AP report again describes the scene as 2nd baseman Tadahito Iguchi plastered a deep drive in the direction of 6′, 6″ rightfielder Corey Hart;

Hart caused another frenzy when he faded back on Iguchi’s drive in the bottom of the ninth, scaling the wall in front of a picnic area to bring the would-be homer back.

“It kept carrying pretty good, so I just sprinted back there as fast as I could to see if I could make a play on the ball,” Hart said. “If I am 5-8, I don’t think that I get that ball. I am good for something, I guess: height.”

Derrick Turnbow (3-4) pitched the eighth to get the win.

For the scores, box scores for this and all of Saturday’s games, click here.

In Sunday’s series finale, Adam Eaton opposes Jeff Suppan. The Phils have an open date on Monday before beginning a 6 game home stand, 3 games each against the Florida Marlins and the Atlanta Braves.

For the scores, boxscores on all of Sunday’s games, click here.